PROVIDENCE –– Governor Carcieri’s advisory panel monitoring his 2008 executive order on illegal immigrants met for the last time yesterday, with Carcieri reiterating that the issue “was a tough one, a complicated one,” but one that he had no regrets about tackling.

“What I’m trying to do in a measured, limited way, is to begin to deal with an issue that has an enormous impact on our state and our nation, and awaken our federal legislators that something’s gotta be done,” the governor said. “Some of you voiced the opinion, ‘Governor, you should stay out of this. It’s too complex and too sensitive an issue.’ I felt, and I still feel, this is an extraordinarily important issue for our state — an issue the governor needs to respond to.”

Carcieri said he knew that some people had labeled him as anti-immigrant after he issued the order, but “nothing could be further from the truth.” He said he issued the order because taxpayers were bearing “the considerable costs” of illegal immigration, absent federal immigration reform.The order requires state police and corrections authorities to work with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to ensure federal immigration law is enforced, and directs state agencies and vendors to screen employees through the federal E-Verify program.

Though some applauded Carcieri’s efforts, protests broke out immediately after Carcieri signed the order, and some — including clergy leaders — called for him to rescind it. In response, Carcieri created the advisory board — a mix of religious leaders, community advocates and people from government, law enforcement and business.

Tuesday marked the first — and last — time Carcieri met with the board to discuss the final report it issued in January. Based on “listening sessions” at churches and other locations, the report said the order created “an overriding sense of fear” among documented and undocumented immigrants alike.

Its recommendations included that Carcieri clarify the intent of his order, and that state officials determine its costs.

Three religious leaders in the group had pressed Carcieri since January to meet with them, and sent a letter in July requesting a meeting as soon as possible. Carcieri said the delay was due to budget matters in tough economic times.

Tuesday, some board members said they felt the panel had mitigated some of the rhetoric that arose after Carcieri’s order.

Retired Rear Adm. Joseph Strasser, the panel’s co-chairman, said he believed that the governor “does what he thinks is best for Rhode Island and its citizens.” But he said immigration “is not a state issue — it’s a federal issue.”

But the Rabbi Alan Flam of the Rhode Island State Board of Rabbis said he wondered whether the board accomplished much of anything.

“Walking out of the meeting, I still have no idea whether the governor heard any of the issues that the task force raised in terms of unintended consequences of his executive order, and I also have no way of knowing — there was no indication by the governor about what happens now,” said Rabbi Flam. “Does he accept this report, does he reject this report? Will it have any impact on how his administration moves forward in terms of trying to address this issue of immigration?”

He added, “The task force’s report notes a climate of fear … He didn’t say anything about that today, he didn’t say anything the administration has done, or will try to do, to allay fear within the immigrant community in Rhode Island. I heard nothing about building bridges with the immigrant community … So my assumption is, we noted there was fear; my assumption is there still is fear, and I have no idea how the governor or his staff intends to address that issue.

“My feeling is that he met with us today because he had to,” the rabbi said. “But essentially, since the task force was created, I don’t think there was ever any serious consideration by him to engage in the issues that the task force might raise in its work.”

The Rev. Donald C. Anderson, executive minister of the Rhode Island State Council of Churches, said he believed the panel raised “some degree of awareness” about the order, “but I would like to have heard a specific response to every recommendation of this panel.”

He said he was especially concerned about who would monitor the roughly 5,000 state vendors to ensure compliance with E-Verify, and how much that would cost.

Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas J. Tobin said the panel served a very important role by “diffusing a very volatile situation a year and a half ago” when Carcieri issued the order.

But the Bishop added, “I still personally believe that the executive order was a mistake, and I still can’t think of one good thing the executive order has done for this state. The only thing was to create divisions which were not helpful, and that raised the rhetoric” about illegal immigration.

Carcieri said he wanted to establish processes and procedures to determine how many illegal immigrants were in state custody, and expedite their transfer to federal immigration custody rather than put them back into the community. And, a so-called 287(g) agreement would give state police access to ICE data bases.

The intent “was never for state police, nor local law enforcement to conduct raids,” said Carcieri, but he noted the “unfortunate” timing of a federal raid of state courthouses as the panel met for the first time last year. [Several of the board’s two dozen members quit after learning of the raid: Carcieri reiterated that he had no prior knowledge of the raid and called its timing “coincidental.”]

Carcieri also said Tuesday that in the aftermath of his order, state police have been “grossly unfairly painted by people with an agenda” to have engaged in racial profiling. He expressed full confidence in the organization.

Over time, said the governor, the public would see that neither state police, nor local law enforcement agencies will use the executive order to engage in immigration raids.

He also said he believed that requiring state executive departments to use E-Verify system is a prudent one, and noted the Obama administration has chosen to go forward to use that system, with a commitment to improve its accuracy and target employers who abuse it. The governor said, “Congress needs to deal with this issue.”

While noting that he has “enormous respect for immigrants — they built this state, they built this nation — but you know, from a national perspective, what’s sad is, you walk around town and you see people from another country, and your first reaction from the public is, are they legal or illegal? That would even be a question if you had a federal [immigration] system in place.”

kziner@projo.com